Norway, particularly northern Norway and Svalbard, have geographical advantages.
Scientists round the world are interested in phenomena related to Sun-Earth interactions, particularly the Aurora. Rockets
launched from the Andøya Rocket Range are well-suited top studying these phenomena, as Andøya lies under the middle of the
magnetic belt around the North Pole where aroral activity peaks.
Scientists wishing to study the interactions of the solar wind with the polar magnetic cusp near the magnetic north pole can
use sounding rockets launched from Svalbard.
Northern Norway and Svalbard are well-suited locations for studies of the processes taking place in near Earth space over
the Arctic, processes which can be signs of global climate changes.
Polar orbiting satellites pass near the North and South Poles 14 times a day. For an owner of one of these satellites, the
SvalSat ground station on Svalbard is ideal for spacecraft control and for downloading data, because the station can see all
14 daily orbits of the satellite.
Norway’s high latitude is a resource in space activities.
Infrastructure
Many space activities take place on or near the ground. Data from rockets, satellites and spacecraft are received and further processed. So it’s often advantageous to exploit space applications from the ground.
